66 Global Recommendations on Nationality and Statelessness 66 in the Context of Climate Change PART B 7. GLOBAL RECOMMENDATIONS | Recommendation 8 Global Recommendations on Nationality and Statelessness in the Context of Climate Change PART B 7. GLOBAL RECOMMENDATIONS | Recommendation 8 7.45 The continued reliance by many States on paper documentation places people at heightened risk of being left undocumented if physical documents are lost or damaged in the context of climate change. For people who have been displaced or migrated to another country which is not their country of nationality in the context of climate change, barriers to accessing consular services such as physical distance, lack of awareness or cost may also undermine their ability to reacquire documentation or verify their nationality status.78 7.46 For more information on preventing statelessness by ensuring birth registration and access to proof of nationality, please refer to UNHCR’s Global Action Plan 2.0, Action 7: Ensure birth registration for the prevention of statelessness, and Action 8: Issue nationality documentation to those with entitlement to it to prevent statelessness. Please also refer to UNHCR’s Good Practices Paper — Action 7: Ensuring birth registration for the prevention of statelessness. Implementation: 7.47 To implement Recommendation 8, States can: •Review and amend, when necessary, laws and policies to ensure free, universal birth registration, regardless of parents’ sex, documentation, migratory, legal or nationality status. •Ensure clear, accessible, and efficient procedures for the (re)acquisition of civil registration documents or documents that serve as proof of nationality, such as passports or national identity cards. •Facilitate the (re)acquisition of civil registration documents and documents that serve as proof of nationality by ensuring that policies regarding access to consular services or assistance for nationals are sensitive to the adverse impacts of climate change and disasters, specifically the increased likelihood of the destruction of or damage to documents. •Train officials to support (re)acquisition of civil registration documents and documents that prove nationality for people impacted by climate-related hazards, including those who have been displaced or migrated in the context of climate change. •Digitalize civil registration systems and other identity management systems to safeguard against the adverse impacts of extreme weather events. •Digitize existing civil registration documents and documents that prove nationality and provide a secure alternative to physical IDs for everyone, including stateless persons. Digitisation needs to follow best practice to ensure that there is continuity between paper-based and digital documents and should be accompanied by explicit safeguards to ensure compliance with the right to privacy and applicable data protection standards. •Assess and address discriminatory or practical obstacles that prevent people who have been impacted, including those who have been displaced or migrated in the context of climate change, from being registered at birth or (re)acquiring documentation. For example, distance from registration centres, or administrative, language, gender-based or financial barriers. •Raise awareness among people who have been impacted, including those who have been displaced or migrated in the context of climate change, of the importance of civil registration and documents that prove nationality. Facilitate access to free legal aid to help access birth registration and documentation in complex situations. •Work within regional organisations of which they are members to promote mutual recognition of identity documents, to facilitate proof of nationality and access to rights and services across borders. IV. Prevent IV. Prevent Recommendation 8 7.44 Relevantly, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration calls on States to provide their nationals with proof of legal identity, including proof of nationality that will allow ‘national and local authorities to ascertain a migrant’s legal identity upon entry, during stay and for return’.76 This responsibility extends to providing replacement legal identity and proof of nationality documents. The Global Compact on Refugees calls on all States to support receiving States to contribute ‘resources and expertise to strengthen the capacity of national civil registries to facilitate timely access by refugees and stateless persons, as appropriate, to civil and birth registration and documentation.’77 67